Sam Allardyce admits Cenk Tosun is struggling to adapt to Premier League football

Everton head coach Sam Allardyce has said that winter signing Cenk Tosun is struggling to adapt to the pace of the Premier League. The Turkey international joined the Toffees from Besiktas midway through the top-flight season, but he has since struggled with just two starts to his name.


Speaking in a press conference, Allardyce admitted that the Turk needs to train much harder with his teammates in order to find his goalscoring touch in the division, he said: “He is struggling with the pace of the Premier League which happens to more players than it doesn’t who come in January.

“It will be important for him to train really, really hard. When it is chucking it down with rain, it is not that he is not used to it, he is, but it’s freezing. There is no doubting his goal-scoring ability but you have to have the capabilities to get in those positions to score those goals and that is the hard bit.”

Despite Tosun’s struggles, Everton have fared impressively in the past few weeks with victories over Leicester City and Crystal Palace in the Premier League. The Toffees were starring at the possibility of dropping into a potential relegation tussle, but they have offered themselves some leeway with six points in their previous three games.

Meanwhile, Allardyce has also found himself a reliable forward in the form of Oumar Niasse in recent matches, and his hold-up play has brought the likes of Theo Walcott and Gylfi Sigurdsson into the game with valuable goals and assists.

Everton are presently placed ninth in the league standings with 34 points, and they will have their sights on finishing at least seventh on the table in order to qualify for Europe next term. Burnley hold a slender a two-point advantage over the Toffees in seventh spot, but they could possibly lose their position in the coming weeks owing to their 10-match winless streak.

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